


Debilitated

by Ordinarily



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinette, Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Developing Friendships, F/M, Fluff, Identity Reveal, LadyNoir - Freeform, Lots of plot, Plot, Swearing, lots of swearing, seriously guys hawkmoth isn't as dumb as he looks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2018-11-29 17:40:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11445798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ordinarily/pseuds/Ordinarily
Summary: Hawkmoth begins attacking at night. Ladybug and Chat Noir are exhausted—not to death, but pretty damn close.





	1. Sleep Deprived

She sprinted through the courtyard, dropping her transformation mid-run despite being well aware it was a careless move.

 

 

_I'mlateI'mlateI'mlate._

Except she wasn't, and found the door to her home room locked and the class empty. The giant clock in the hallway let her know she still had fifteen minutes to spare, and she cursed herself, knowing she might've had time to rush home and  _brush her teeth_ or something, after the akuma attack. 

She contemplated it now, wagering the approximate time it would take her to get home and back, and that alone would probably take fifteen minutes, even as Ladybug. 

So she sat underneath the doorknob, vaguely aware of the eerily empty halls. Where were the teachers when you needed them? 

It was a royal pain when akuma decided to strike at night. Didn't Hawkmoth know she and Chat Noir had lives to get to the next day? Didn't _he_ have a life to get to? Her partner was less than thrilled last night as well—she could tell by the force of his aggression. He never really got that riled up when it came to akuma, but at one point last night, she thought he might really lose it. 

 

Enter Adrien Agreste: staggering, shuffling mess. He bypassed Marinette, collapsing underneath the door hinges, despite one of them digging into his shoulder blade. He turned his head to observe the sluggish form mirroring his position, eyes a little bleary from the lack of sleep, and noticed the mop of mussed hair that was splayed across forearms being propped up by knees. He almost wouldn't have recognized her if not for her habitual pastel jeans. 

"Hey Marinette," he spoke through a stifled yawn. 

"Hi Adrien," she managed, shifting to peak up at him over her arm and tangled bangs. 

"Long night?" he asked, titling his head back against the door and giving her a tired smile. 

"Yeah. Studying," she explained. "You?"

"Yeah. Same."

 

Adrien's story went a little along the same lines as his classmate's. To hell with studying, that fucking akuma woke him up from a dream about his mom. That fucker was going to  _pay_. Except he didn't really pay, because Chat couldn't bring himself to direct his attacks toward an innocent civilian and unless Hawkmoth materialized in front of him at some point, he wasn't getting revenge anytime soon. Adrien was really the only one who ended up paying, fighting harder than usual and exhausting himself to debility, for virtually no outcome. Even Ladybug appeared on edge—her technique was off and it took them a lot longer than it otherwise would of, had it not been three A.M. 

The clacking of heels through the hall would've went unnoticed if not for Madame Bustier's voice echoing maybe just a little too loudly in his ears. "Long night, was it?" their teacher mused.

He glanced at Marinette, as they both agreed in unison. She unlocked the door, and almost in-sync, the teens fell into their respected seats. 

 

He wasn't sure how long he'd conked out for, but he woke up to the rough shove of Nino's shoulder. "Adrien, man, I'm bored."

Adrien gave Nino a side eye before slowly rising from his folded arms, inching forward and glowering at his best friend. "You...  _woke me up_... because you were  _bored_?" 

"Hey," Nino said gently, his palms raised up in surrender as he glanced nervously at Alya. "Alya was bored too! Isn't that right, Al?"

"Don't call me Al," was all she said, leaning on a fist and staring at the board disinterestedly.

He turned further to observe the fourth party of their friend group, expecting to find her covering her mouth in attempt to hide a smile or chewing on a pencil and staring at her sketchbook. But Marinette mirrored his exact position moments earlier: head smushed against her crossed arms and a tiny puddle of drool pooling onto lined paper. 

"See," he said, without turning back to Nino. "Marinette gets to sleep." 

"No she does not," sing-songed Madame Bustier, strolling past their isle and tapping a pen on the desk next to Marinette's ear. The poor girl startled awake with a little yelp, a flush spreading over her cheeks as their teacher gave her a warning look. 

"Man," she moaned, once the woman had returned to her desk. "Is eight hours of sleep too much to ask?" She slumped back over her arms, wide awake but seemingly pondering the risk of going back to sleep. Glancing up, she found Adrien staring at her. He gave her a little smile as their eyes met and she suppressed the reflex to flinch, instead offering him one in return. He felt for her, almost resenting Miss Bustier for waking her up with the modicum amount of sleep she'd (probably) gotten. 

Didn't she know what it felt like to be so sleep deprived you could barely function? 

He sure did. Briefly, his thoughts wandered to his lady, and if she was also in some classroom, halfway journeyed to passing out. He pictured her blinking blearily at a black board, head drooping from where it was held up by a fist and then jerking back before she could really fall into slumber. 

Man,  _screw_  Hawkmoth. Seriously. 

Didn't he have anything better to do than exhaust them to death?

 

Apparently not. And not only in theory, it was a good plan. Effective, productive. Tiresome. 

 

The next night they met on top of a rooftop, crashing distraughtly into each other. 

"Did you get any sleep?" she inquired, almost incoherently.

Chat shook his head feebly. "Did you?"

"Half an hour nap."

"Nice," he replied through a yawn, holding out his knuckles for a fist bump which she lazily returned. 

"Okay," she began. "Ready?"

"No."

"Me neither." 

And then they were off on their separate ways, attacking the night's akuma with no solid plan. It was so unlike Ladybug, and maybe he would've actually had the heart to dwell on it, had he not been crashing left and right into objects and hits. Frankly, neither of them had the energy to fight properly.

"Chat!" she yelled over a swarm of thorned roses. "We need stimulants!"

"Stimuwhats?"

"Coffee, red bull, caffeine! Something to wake us up!"

"Give me five!" he yelled back, hurrying to the nearest convenience store.

Upon his return he tossed Ladybug a can while he downed half the other. It took awhile for the caffeine to kick in, but once it did they were in full throttle. The akuma was defeated within minutes, and they bounded over rooftops together, energy plaguing their systems. 

"Whooh! What else you got Hawkmoth?" she whooped.

"Bring it!" her partner added, throwing his arms up in the air. 

 

* * *

 

"Don't bring it!" he yelled at the horizon. "I was just being metaphorical!" 

"Fucking hell!" screeched his spotted partner. "Why won't he leave us the fuck alone? What is it now—three nights in a row? Doesn't this guy ever sleep?"

"How many people can possibly be angry in Paris in the middle of night?" Chat whined. "This guy not get laid or something?"

"Wouldn't surprise me," she replied. "The last guy got stood up, and the girl before that had a fight with her boyfriend."

"Jesus, how about we send out a PSA: All of Paris must be asleep from 11 PM to 7 AM. No negative emotions allowed."

"I wish," she replied, and maybe she would've gone so far as to smile if it wasn't taking all her will-power to stand up.

"Red Bull?" 

"No thanks. My mom literally had to throw water on me to get me up this morning."

"Ah the infamous caffeine crash." 

"It's so real. So, so real," she whimpered, rubbing at her eyes. "I just want sleep."

"I know Bugaboo. Me too." 

Somehow, having Chat Noir to endure this pain with made it just a little more bearable. She threw herself into his open arms, closing her eyes and making herself believe that for one moment—only a moment—she could fall asleep with him. It was short lived, however, when she had to dodge a series of wine glasses aimed straight toward them. 

"Jesus Fuck."

"You swear a lot when you're tired," he remarked. 

"You're somehow  _more_  annoying when you're tired," she countered. 

He leapt out of the way of a wine bottle crashing against the building behind him. " _Meow_ ch. You wound me Milady."

"Did you just make a fucking pun?"

 

Two hours they'd been fighting.  _Two_   _long, grueling, torturous hours._

"If we quit now, he'll get our miraculouses," she huffed, gasping for air.

"I know," he grunted through a throbbing headache. "But at this point I'm willing to let him take it."

"Chat."

"Ladybug, I'm  _exhausted_." There was a moment of calculative silence and then:

"Do you think Paris would miss us if we took a small nap?"

"I don't think we have a choice," she shrieked, pink light engulfing her from her feet up. 

"Ladybug!"

He grabbed her, swooping her up by her waist and running to the nearest alcove he could find, hoping with as much might as he could muster that the akuma wouldn't find them. Ladybug lay detransformed in his arms—not to mention sound asleep—but he didn't dare look down at her. He had half a heart to go back and continue fighting, but the second his back hit the metal railing at the side of the rooftop, he was out like a light. 

 

* * *

 

 

Heavy. Whatever weight was pressing her down into the cement of a rooftop; it was heavy. The first thing she noticed was a mop of blond hair obscuring the majority of her vision. The second thing she noticed was that said blond mop had his face pressed into her chest. It wasn't uncomfortable per se, but instincts screamed at her to shove him off. (Or at least wake him.) 

But she found that she couldn't really do either of those without risking finding out his identity. 

As it turned out, Chat Noir wore a t-shirt and boxers to bed. 

_Of course he did. Why not make this any less accommodating?_

She almost yelled at the feeling of bare legs—she sometimes wore nothing but a tee to bed (and usually didn't stop to consider her outfit before transforming)—before realizing she was, in fact, wearing pj shorts.  _Halle-freaking-lujah._

After technicalities were dealt with, her thought process entertained the akuma. Was it still out there? Surely, Ladybug and Chat Noir had not been there to fight it off. She started at the thought of Tikki, searching frantically for her while moving as little as possible. 

A sleep-ridden Chat began to fuss around on top of her and she hissed at him to stay put. _"Mmmi-lay-deee?"_

"I can't find my kwami," she rushed out.

"I'd help you look, bugaboo, but I don't think I can chance lifting my head." Adrien began trying to concoct a plan that consisted of getting up, without accidentally seeing Ladybug _or_ revealing himself. "Plagg?"

"I don't think yours is here either," she heaved out.

"Calm down, I'm sure we'll find them." 

She made a choking noise that caused Adrien's heart to stop in his chest. "Chat do you have your miraculous?"

His stomach churned, and at the feeling of his bare finger his whole body flashed white hot. The entire plan flew out the window and he shot up out of instinct to actually look at his fingers, blind touch not enough to convince him of whatever sick, twisted reality he was living. 

And then his eyes traveled sideways to Ladybug: without her mask, in a large t-shirt, and holding both her ear lobes between her thumbs and forefingers.

"What the _fuck_ ," he screeched.

And when recognition finally settled in, his jaw went slack and his body flashed hot anew.

"Marinette?" The girl he'd had classes with for the better part of high school and who, coincidentally, was part of his quartet friend group.

 

There were two things that could make Adrien stop functioning altogether—maybe three. 

1) Ladybug's true identity.

2) His kawmi in danger.

3) His friends or family in danger.

 

And when two out of the three things occurred simultaneously, Adrien thought he might've just broke.

Like, in half.

(Or multiple halves).

Like a ceramic plate. Or a glass window. Or Adrien Agreste not being able to render information from his brain to the rest of his body, forgetting how fill his lungs with air or close his eyes in quick, short motions—(often called blinking).

 

What the fuck, indeed. 

 

"Adrien?!"

 

* * *

 

She wandered through the courtyard feeling nothing short of spent. She wasn't late for once—albeit not early either—and when she made her way to her homeroom class she found that the door was already open. Alya sat at their shared table, scrolling idly through her phone, a look of displeasure in her expression. 

"Hey gi—whoa what happened to you?" Marinette offered a tired smile and dismissed her friend's concern, trying her luck with an excuse about studying. Alya eyed her suspiciously but let the conversation drop anyway, turning back to her phone.

"What's up with _you_?"

"You didn't hear about Ladybug and Chat?"

"Oh."  _Oh._  "Yeah, I heard."  _Apparently news traveled fast._ "You must be really bummed."

"Yeah... I know they'll figure it out though. They're still Paris' superheroes."

_Not without their miraculouses they're not. But at least one of us is being an optimist._

 

Enter Adrien Agreste (again): numb, tired mess. He offered the girls a rueful smiled each and dropped his bag next to his desk, taking his respectful seat. It'd been a long weekend and he hadn't seen Marinette (Ladybug?) for the entirety of it. It was kind of ironic that now that he actually _could_ sleep, his subconscious wouldn't let him. Not when Plagg was gone.

Not when Chat Noir was gone.

Now more than ever he needed distractions, and only because he was the bearer of bad luck (even without his miraculous) life pointedly decided to knee him in the balls. Nino was busy all weekend with family stuff, so Adrien turned to school. For the chapters of homework he'd been assigned weeks in a row, apparently now was a good time to give the students a break from it. _Of course_ the one time Adrien actually _wanted_ homework, he was denied it. He was becoming a little desperate without Plagg and figured maybe his dad booked some modelling shoots. He was kind of depending on them at this point. But when he cautiously inched into his father's office, he was stricken to find the designer fast asleep at his desk. 

Guess it was a long week for him too, Adrien had thought, slowly backing out of the room.

 

Nino strolled into class, whistling to himself without much of a care for anything until he noticed the dampered energy in the room. "Jeez, who died?"

"Ladybug and Chat Noir," mumbled Alya, barely glancing up from her phone.

Adrien turned back to share a quick look with Marinette. The words were palpable: _Almost, but not quite._  

"They died?!" Nino screeched.

"They lost their miraculouses," Alya clarified.

"Jeez, careful with your words, Al."

"Sorry. I know they'll figure it out, I'm just upset it happened in the first place."

Marinette had heard enough. As the conversation continued in the background, she wrote a note on a scrap piece of paper as discretely as she could and inched forward, slipping it over Adrien's shoulder. He lent back, grabbing the paper and crumpling it in his fist. It was only halfway through class when he thought it was finally safe enough to read it, so he gently unraveled it—attempting to be as silent as possible—and read it under the desk.

**Meet me at the locker rooms after class.**

He crumpled it back up and stuck it in his pocket. By the time the bell rang, he'd told Nino he'd forgotten something in his locker and not to wait up for him. When he turned around, he found Marinette doing the same to Alya, deliberately taking her time packing her things. To avoid suspicion, he walked out with Nino and waved a final goodbye to head to his locker. He actually opened it, pretending to rummage through it, and when he thought enough time had passed, he started off toward the gyms. Mari was waiting for him just outside the locker rooms, adjusting her schoolbag over her shoulder.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I think I know a guy that might be able to help us."

"'Us' as in Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

"Yeah."

"I thought no one was supposed to know about our identities." He didn't mean for it to come out sounding bitter but nonetheless, Adrien still figured it did.

"He's the one who gave us our miraculouses to begin with. I don't think we have much of a say in this one."

"Whoa... so he's, like, our higher up."

"More than that, I'd say. He healed my kwami once." 

They made their way out of the school, Marinette leading him toward Master Fu's dojo. "I'm looking forward to meeting him, Milady."

"Yeah, well I wouldn't be too ecstatic. He's probably gonna let us have it for losing our miraculouses," she warned.

Adrien gulped. "This... is a little overwhelming."

"He's the only one who can help us... Also, you know that book your dad had about all the miraculouses?"

"How do you know about that?"

"Lila stole it from you, I stole it from Lila. Kind of. Anyway, Tikki said Master Fu had been looking for it for a long time and that it would be really dangerous in the wrong hands. So I gave it back to him."

"I don't know how to feel about that." Mari shot him a questioning glance. "I searched for that thing forever. I was shitting myself thinking my dad was gonna notice it went missing." 

She stifled a laugh, apologizing for the distress she'd involuntarily caused him. "I assure you it's in good hands."

"Makes me wonder why my dad had it though."

She went silent, giving a little nod. Adrien thought she knew more than she was letting on, but didn't press any further. 

 

 

 


	2. Building Blocks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything comes crashing down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually kind of hate this, but I hate leaving it incomplete a little more so... here we are

"He had them." Adrien's voice sounded completely shattered, even over the phone, and Marinette couldn't help feeling the slightest bit guilty.

"Adrien... I'm sorry."

It was silent for a moment. "You have nothing to be sorry about." More silence. "Do you want to come over?"

"What—to your house?"

His voice was tight. "Yes."

 

The visit to Master Fu's had started off rather well but quickly took a turn for the worst. Adrien had been utterly delighted to meet the man who'd granted him the opportunity to be someone other than poise, polite, supposedly perfect Adrien Agreste and Fu had been instrumental in answering the flood of questions the teen drowned him with. It seemed Fu knew a lot—probably more than he cared to share. For one, he knew about the lost miraculouses before Marinette even uttered a word past a greeting, and—in addition to scolding them—was already theorizing on ways to get them back.

But then Fu dropped the bomb on Adrien—pretty gently, mind you—and his ears were ringing at the mere thought of the truth of Master Fu's words.

Adrien laughed. 

So Fu was a jokester. That was cool, he could get with that. 

But when he looked at Mari and she had this look on her face—something halfway between discomfort and solicitude—and the old man stared at him calculatingly, Adrien's face morphed into disgust. "That was a joke a right?"

Master Fu shook his head.

The blond took in a sharp breath, studying the man in front of him and recoiling. "Listen, I get it. You're all wise and at peace with the world, or whatever, but you don't know my father. He may be neglecting and downright cold at times, but he is  _not_  evil." He shook his head violently, tears brimming his eyes and booked it out of there as fast as he could.

Maybe some part of him knew it was true and that was why he reacted the way he did. But the part of him that still regarded Gabriel Agreste as his loving dad, still wholly in love with his mother, refused to believe it. So when he got home and stomped his way to the framed picture where he'd first found the miraculous book—turned out the code was his birthday (how original)—and found his pretty little ring and Ladybug's pretty little earrings sitting neatly side by side, his knees buckled and he sank to the floor, sobs quaking through his body. He swore and thrashed at the ground, wondering if this was it. If he was destined to have every good thing in his life inevitably turn against him. He blindly reached for his phone, pressing Marinette's contact, and called her—breakdown and all. 

He didn't even have to speak before she was asking if he was okay and that was all he needed to not feel like the world was caving beneath his feet anymore. Now it was only  _threatening_  to cave beneath his feet.

"Yeah. I'll be over as soon as I can," she said. 

He sat there for a few long moments before forcing himself up on shaky limbs, grabbing the miraculouses and heading to the front door to wait for Marinette. It was fifteen minutes later when the ringer buzzed and he threw the door open, not giving anyone else who might be in the house a chance to answer it.

"Oh, Adrien," was the first thing she said upon meeting his puffy eyes. She threw herself at him, hugging him tight enough for her to hope his broken pieces would fit back together. He closed his eyes, imagining it was his mother he was hugging. But then some part of his stupid, too-good-for-anything-even-remotely-self-indulgent conscience reminded him that wasn't fair to Marinette, and he abruptly ceased any imminent thoughts.

"I feel like I don't have anyone," he murmured so quietly and so void of emotion she almost didn't catch it. 

Marinette thought her heart might've split. "You have me. And Nino and Alya and your kwami, and I promise you're not going to feel lonely another day in your life."

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Mari."

She swallowed harshly. "I always thought Chat was kidding."

His arms wrapped around her finally, and he cried for a long time. 

 

* * *

  

He felt pretty exhausted for a solid week after that, which was ironic because that was how he'd been feeling the week before, too. Granted, this was sort of a different tired.  Marinette suggested they take some time off from being superheroes; no one had to know they'd gotten their miraculouses back, right? Perhaps it was selfish, but she figured it was about time Adrien start putting himself first. However it proved to be short-lived when, in the middle of math class, a faraway shout caught the attention of entire class, and everyone shot to their feet, proceeding with their routine protocol: Get out, get home, get safe. In all probability, it doubtlessly wasn't the safest move for the students to venture out into the streets—they were probably even more likely to be an akuma's victim—but Marinette had the sneaking suspicion the school put the protocol in place in order to ensure they weren't liable for any damage on school grounds.

Marinette and Adrien exchanged a concerned glance and took off in their separate ways for somewhere to transform. So much for their little vacation. As Adrien became Chat for the first time in a long while, he figured he didn't mind going back to routine. Ladybug would be there. Who was also Marinette. Who was also the sweetest person ever, but that wasn't news. Hawkmoth had been surprisingly quiet recently, so it was a little off-putting when an akuma struck out of nowhere. He wondered if his dad had noticed the missing miraculouses...

 

She was fire.

Literally. Leaving a trail of soot and ash as she crossed the city at lightning speed. 

"He's trying to kill us this time, _actually_ trying to kill us!" shouted Chat as he dodged yet another flame. It narrowly missed him, burning a patch right off the shoulder of his suit. "Hey, I thought these things were supposed to be magic..."

"Apparently magic isn't fireproof," replied Ladybug, throwing her yo-yo forward and landing next to him. "How are you holding up?"

"I don't want to be here."

"He has a reason, okay? You know him best and you said it yourself; he's not evil."

"Every _shred_ of reality fell to pieces right in front of me. How the hell do I know what's real?"

"Adrien..."

And then he was pushing her out of the way of a ball of fire, grabbing his baton and bounding toward the akuma. 

_What do you want with me? What do you want with Ladybug? What's this about?_

"Cataclysm!" He destroyed her staff, releasing a purple butterfly and watching as his partner returned everything to normal.

"Hey, maybe next time let me know before you pull something like that."

Chat shrugged, giving a little salute and turning away. 

_Why? How many times are you going to mind-control people? You're a criminal. A monster._

He skidded to a stop on a roof, throwing his baton to the side and releasing his transformation. "What the fuck?" he yelled. "What the _fuck?_ Did I do something? Ever since Mom..."

He slumped down, letting his back hit the asphalt and spreading wide eagle. Plagg floated down next to him, tapping his paws against Adrien's stomach in a gesture of consolation. He lay there awhile, letting the anger simmer. It'd been building up for weeks and now he was seeing red.

"You're a piece of shit," he whispered. "All you fucking care about is your job. And destroying people's lives, apparently. Including mine. If I never see you again, it'll be too goddamn soon."

Something dark flapped in the corner of his vision as Plagg's tapping grew desperate, and then everything went black. 

 

* * *

 

"Marinette! Mari!" cried Alya, springing open the trapdoor to her room. 

Marinette jumped, the sewing needle going awry on the fabric she was mending. "Christ, Alya."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the other girl rushed out. "But look!" 

It was already making news headlines: Pretty Boy, Adrien Agreste, Akumatized and Causing Terror Across Paris.

Right, so maybe not quite like that. But pretty damn close, if Marinette had a say. But she didn't. So she shooed Alya off to the scene to get pictures for the LadyBlog, and assured her she'd prepare whatever it was Adrien would need when he came to.

 

She stood across from him. He was in a dress suit that, on any other occasion, would make her drool, and a mask that looked almost identical to Chat's. "What are you supposed to be?" 

She didn't want to taunt him, exactly—it was more of genuine curiosity. "It's who, really. I'm _Le Mannequin_." 

_Oh, for crying out loud._  

A model, yes, but one for stores and shop windows (and fathers) to manipulate as they please. It was almost comical and _almost_ a pun, and Marinette almost though Adrien might've come up with it himself. 

"Nice to meet you, _Le Mannequin_ , I'm Ladybug," she said, only to stall. Her eyes flitted over his form, searching for the akuma's hiding spot. It was either the ring, which she _really_ didn't want to chance, recalling what had happened when she took off her earrings the first time, or the bracelet she'd made for him. Her heart sank.

"I know who you are," he said. "And I'm not going to fight you. Actually, I need your help to take down Hawkmoth."

_What kind of—?_

Adrien froze. It looked like he was fighting an internal struggle, his eyebrows knitting and jaw going slack.

"You should've thought of that before you akumatized me," he mumbled. "It doesn't work when you're the person I'm angry at."

There was a pause where he wore a victory smirk before it fell in its entirety, causing Ladybug to squirm. What could she do? _What could she do?_ He mumbled something unintelligible before screaming.

"She's dead! She's fucking dead! Just let her go! You can't—" Adrien heaved, nearly losing balance. "You can't... You'll take someone else's life! You can't _do_ that!"

Marinette shrunk. Guilt kissed her neck; she should have told him before, but it didn't feel like her place! He needed to hear it from his father—he... doubled over, his hands at his temples and she ran to catch him. "Stop..." he whispered, his voice broken.

And then, all at once, he was back to being Adrien, while the akuma flew from his bracelet. Ladybug caught it without moving too much, figuring she could purify it in a little bit, because the boy sobbing in her shoulder merited a little more attention at the moment.

"I hate him so much," he choked out. 

"He's grieving," Ladybug tried.

Adrien shook his head. "I've been grieving for just as long and you don't see me trying to play God. I needed him for so long... and-and he was never... he was never fucking there for me."

 

* * *

 

Adrien awoke in Marinette's very pink room, feeling exhausted and loopy—and distraught when he peaked outside to see a pink sky. He stretched, making all sorts of noises. It was probably the best sleep he'd had in weeks. Marinette's cheeks flushed when she turned to him. "Are you hungry?" she asked.

He looked down at her from the pink sheets and nodded.

She waved a plate of croissants at him from below and he grinned. "Aw man, you're gonna make me come get them?"

Plagg sat on her desk, a ways away from her sewing machine, making his way through a platter of cheese. 

"How are you feeling?" she asked from her desk chair, while he sat and ate. 

He hesitated. "Actually... better. I think I got it out of my system." She smiled at him and it felt like a warm blanket draped over his shoulders. "Thanks for taking care of me."

"You're always welcome here, you know that."

His heart soared for a moment. "No, I mean... Over the past couple of weeks... thanks for being there."

There was a lump in her throat as she smiled again. "Always. You're my partner."

 

* * *

 

Bonus:

 

"How's he doing?" Marinette's voice sounded through the speaker.

"He's, uh..." replied Adrien, turning to glance at his father's sleeping form wrapped in a cocoon of blankets, the TV's glow creating shadows across his features, "coping."

"Healthily, I hope."

"No akuma," he assured her. "And I think he's actually starting to build his relationship with Nooroo back up."

"Promise me I'll get to meet him one day? Tikki's really excited to see him."

"'Course. Plagg's been bonding with him ever since. However," he said a little louder, looking down at his kwami, "it's time to transform now." She heard Plagg's whining through the phone, before a low, "Claws out."

" _Notre Dame_ in ten?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world, Milady."

"You're cheesy," she replied, but her voice was light and he grinned.

Things were better than they'd been in a long, long time, and Adrien's chest felt so full he could cry. He liked to think his mom would be proud of him and that, eventually, she would be proud of his dad, too. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had such bad writer's block, can you tell ????????
> 
> As a side note, happy holidays everyone! I hope to post more over the break, but I tend to have trouble finishing things.... okay bye thanks for all the support <3

**Author's Note:**

> I just feel like they're tired 24/7 and it's never really acknowledged so... yeah.  
> Also, headcanon: Marinette swears a lot when she's tired.


End file.
